‘What on earth are you talking about?’ he demanded. ‘Didn’t you hear me send them away? This is not the end, unless you want it to be the end. We can have as long as you want.’
As his mistress, she thought. A muscle flicking in his jaw betrayed his tension as he waited for her answer.
‘You’ve spent too long away,’ she said, ‘and the country is missing you. It’s time for us both to go home.’
He held her at arm’s length so he could stare into her face. ‘I don’t regret a moment of this.’
That sounded like a death knell.
Dreams, she mused as she stared into Khalid’s harsh, warrior face. They all had to end somewhere, and she would never hurt him by prolonging this. How could she hurt the man she loved?
‘Nothing has changed,’ he insisted. ‘Those men answer to me.’
‘But I don’t,’ she said.
There was a silence, as if he needed to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t a princess to be paraded in front of him for his approval, but Millie, the laundress, soon to be engineer, who made her own decisions.
Millie could deliver a rebuke with her silent defiance more effectively than with a million words. His men would go back to the palace, and send the Princess and her family away, but the damage was done. The expression in Millie’s eyes said this idyll was over, and it wasn’t up to him to change the rules. He would try to persuade her she was wrong, but Millie was her own woman, and would plough her own furrow. Wealth and status meant nothing to her. She looked for more meaning that that.
‘The Princess is one of many my royal council has asked me to consider. Our constitution allows the royal council to choose a bride for me—’
‘What?’ Millie exclaimed.
‘The law didn’t trouble Saif. He would have his women and his bride—’
‘And you’re different?’ she said, feeling faint, feeling unlike herself, feeling furious.
‘I will change the law,’ he said.
‘In time?’ And when he didn’t answer, she added, ‘I’ve no intention of waiting in line to learn if you’re engaged or married. I have a life too, and I need to be getting on with it. I can’t postpone everything each time you decide to go back to Khalifa to trial a prospective wife.’
‘I have no intention of trialling anyone—’
‘Then?’ she interrupted, tight-lipped.
* * *
She brought him up short, staring at him with such trust, when he knew he could offer her nothing. There would be an engagement. His country expected him to make an advantageous marriage, and he couldn’t put it off for ever.
‘So, it’s definite, then?’ she said.
He couldn’t lie to her and only briskly nodded his head.
‘Why prolong the agony?’ she demanded, lifting her chin, strong for both of them now. ‘I should go, and so should you. This is over.’
Something tore in his heart as she said the words that needed to be spoken. ‘I had planned to show you the desert.’
‘As I had planned to learn more about Khalifa,’ she agreed, ‘but that will never happen now. I think we both have to be realistic.’
She’d come through so much. Why must he be the one to hurt her like this?
‘Can you call for the helicopter, please?’ she asked briskly. ‘I’d like to leave now, or as soon as possible.’
He admired her so much. Nothing knocked Millie down, or, if it did, she soon bounced back again. ‘I’ll drop you at the airport when I leave,’ he agreed stiffly, knowing she was giving them both an easy way out. But she flinched, and he supposed he must have sounded clinical. After the wild passion they’d shared the contrast to this was just too stark. But he couldn’t hurt her, and the surest way of doing that was to keep her close.
‘One more night,’ he insisted, catching her close. ‘I’m not asking your permission,’ he added. ‘This is a direct order. We have one more night in each other’s arms.’
‘No. I can’t,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Or, you won’t?’ he asked softly.
‘Khalid, please, don’t you think this is hard enough without spinning out the agony?’
He now proved how ruthless he could be, and seduced her.
‘You don’t play fair,’ she complained in a shaking sigh.
‘That’s right, I don’t,’ he agreed.
* * *
The bed Khalid was backing her towards was composed entirely of down-filled pillows, covered in the softest, finest silk. In this fragrant shaded cool, he laid her down and then joined her as he continued to soothe and arouse. She knew it was wrong, but who could resist him when he lifted her and rested her buttocks on the cushions, and spread her legs wide?
‘No, we mustn’t,’ she said, thrashing her head.
‘I’d say, we must,’ he argued.
‘It will only make things worse,’ she said as she wavered between reason and need.
‘For you or for me?’ he asked as he paused to protect her.
‘For both of us,’ she gasped against his chest as he moved over her.
It was always a shock when Khalid took her, he was so big, but he was also careful, knowing that his size was a consideration, before it became a pleasure. He’d always taken care of her, she acknowledged as he sank deep. Relaxing, she tightened her inner muscles around him to hold him firmly in place, but he had an answer for that too. Rotating his hips, he buffeted the tiny area that always needed him. ‘Now,’ she begged. ‘Don’t wait. I need this.’
Pulling back, he stared down. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Find out?’ she said.
Bracing himself on his forearms so his weight didn’t crush her, Khalid thrust his hips forward and took her in one, deep plunge to the hilt.
‘Faster! Harder!’ she cried to encourage him, and he rewarded her by doing just that. Maintaining a steady rhythm, he made sure that she extracted every single pleasure pulse, before launching her into an atomic release. Even before she’d quietened, he’d turned her on her stomach. She lifted her buttocks to encourage him. Nudging her legs wider, he pressed his hand into the small of her back to raise them even more. Taking a cheek in each hand, he controlled her steady movements back and forth.
They made love through the night as if each second must be savoured, because very soon it would be their last.
* * *
‘Wake up. It’s time to leave.’
Millie blinked groggily as she slowly came to. At first, it seemed she didn’t know where she was, only that Khalid was beside her. Groaning with contentment as the new day began, she reached for him.
‘Not now,’ he said, starting to get out of bed.
‘Yes, now,’ she argued. He’d made her insatiable. Something had changed in her body that made her need him more than ever.
‘We have to leave soon,’ he explained, but as their eyes met and she smiled into his, he relented. Drawing her into his arms, he kissed her with the utmost tenderness, and when he took her this time he was equally thorough and caring. ‘I’m going to find it hard to be parted from you,’ he admitted when they finally rested back with a contented sigh.
‘But part we must,’ she said, forcing brightness into her tone.
Was she laughing through her tears, or did she not care that much? This was a unique situation for him. He was always so sure of everything, but Millie was an enigma it would take a lifetime he couldn’t give her to unravel.
Dropping a kiss on Khalid’s shoulder, she tried to show that she could handle this. ‘Shall we have one last swim?’ she asked. She shrugged. ‘We need to shower, so...?’
‘There’s no need to leave the tent,’ Khalid explained. ‘There’s a bathing platform behind that curtain.’